AP FILE PHOTO
HOLLYWOOD—It wasn’t just eye contact between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. at ringside, after all.
Mayweather, the flamboyant American who retired as unbeaten champion, gave his former ring rival the thumbs-up after Pacquiao’s dominant conquest of Jessie Vargas on Saturday night at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
“He (Mayweather) was having eye contact (with Pacquiao),” said Mike Koncz, Pacquiao’s adviser. “Yeah, because even after the fight, when Manny stood in that corner and and put his hands up for his fans, he looked at Floyd and Floyd gave him the thumbs-up. I saw it.”
That little gesture could be a sign of bigger things to come as Mayweather had announced that he’s contemplating on returning to the ring he ruled with Pacquiao several years back.
Coincidentally, promoter Bob Arum told ESPN on Monday that Pacquiao will definitely fight in the spring and there’s a 75 percent chance that he’d be facing Mayweather in a rematch.
Pacquiao and Mayweather tangled in a super blockbuster in May 2015, with the American beating the eight-division world champion by unanimous decision.
Pacquiao suffered a rotator cuff tear on his right shoulder in the course of the bout.
His injury completely healed, Pacquiao staged a virtuoso performance to wrest Vargas’ World Boxing Organization welterweight crown.
With his similarly lopsided victory over Tim Bradley Jr. on April 9 factored in, Pacquiao was put back on top of the pound-for-pound rankings by some boxing evaluating bodies.
On Monday, Pacquiao said in jest that he’s probably in the top 50 of the pound-for-pound list.
Among those cited by Pacquiao as top pound-for-pound contenders are Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin, Terrence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenco.
Apart from Mayweather, Koncz said he is also considering Adrien Broner for Pacquiao’s next assignment because the fight will sell.
Nowhere near what a Pacquiao-Mayweather rematch will generate, of course.